First "big" smoke, a few questions.

[thwilj01]

Howdy, 

New poster here, longtime lurker so thank yall for the help getting somewhat up to speed by reading the forums over the last few months.

Up to now I've never smoked anything more than for a few people at a time. But the wife and I have 30 or so people coming on Saturday at 6 PM and I have a few questions/clarifications.

1. With two butts, at 10 lbs each I am looking at 1.5 hrs/lb for 10 lbs, not 20 lbs correct? I'm not adding the two together to calculate times is my understanding, so I'm looking at around 15 hours + some leeway time for the smoke and rest time.

2. The butts are sitting in the fridge, rubbed down and ready to go as of around 2PM today, can I wait until around 9PM on Friday (around 31 hours in the fridge) or should I start the smoke before then? If I need to start earlier that is fine, just want to double check.

Thanks in advance for any help. Cheers!

EDIT: Also, just double checking, but 20 lbs should be enough for around 30 people correct? 

 

[jbills5]

You are correct.  The 1.5 for 10 lbs.  I would cushion yourself and look more at 2 hours per pound just to be safe.

 

[thwilj01]

Great, thanks for your help. Throwing em on tonight!

 

[pineywoods]

As a general rule figure your going to yield about 50% of raw weight so starting with 20 lbs you should have around 10 lbs of finished product. Often times you will yield a little more than 50%.

If your making the sandwiches you can use 1/4 lb per but I find when you allow people to make their own it's more like 1/3 lb per sandwich. So 10 lbs of product should yield 30 sandwiches.